a Glitch in the System... short GW2 story..

Nevrmind was short.... even for an Asurian he was short...

Daemon with a blade and take the eye out of a gnat at fifty paces with his pistol.... but still short...

So the events of the other day were a bit of an equaliser to him and a toothy grin replaced this usual grimace for a while.

The reactor in Mectrica was going mental again with all sorts of creatures being spewed out at random.... causing havoc on the poor technicians... they have enough to deal with with the bio clouds so being torn apart by some suddenly appearing griffin, or bear, does not help them get the job done...

So in come the hero's.... beast like Charr... slender Sylvari.....  Warrior Norn..... Humans and the ever resourceful Asura.... most of them bigger than Nevrmind...

They come to defeat the Fire Elemental.... they come to defend whats left of the reactor against the daemon that rises out of the chaos caused by the explosion.....

And little Nevrmind just runs around trying not to get tripped over....

"Can't you see me, you ugly lumps of wasted bit space..." he thinks " I'm trying to get some materials n coin here for my legendary..." as he lops the head off a bear that took a fancy to his leg...

The, ever hopeful, Clean 5000 starts his run at sucking up the bio clouds.... so some of the hero's stay to protect him from the inquest's efforts to shut him down... but most just lope off to the main chamber and have a "lets jump up and down session"..... waiting for "C5" to get there.....

The first room C5 runs into spawns several Mk1 robots who do a very good Pete Townsend impression by whirling away.... the bodies fly away to smack into the walls....

Nevrmind thinks "more into Brian May" runs in.... takes the feet out from under the robots.... while the others pile in with swords and hammers flailing....

Next few rooms repeat this and then we get to the Elemental fighting area... C5 as usual blows a fuse and then blows up into the Fire Elemental itself.... fifty feet of flame whirling around spewing out little fireball tornado's that sap the life force out of any they touch...

The jumping up and down boys now jump in and hammer everything they have at the Elemental...

There's spell casters with books of power over their heads.... Archers with quivers of a thousand arrows sending a blazing hailstorm and Char blunderbusses blowing great holes in the flames...

Nevrmind, just, dances about with his little pistols.... muttering.... mumbling.... bet I get another useless spirit shard for this....

And all the while the Fire Elemental is weakening.... weakening... until, with a final whoosh, he is defeated..... We all run about and heal those who have fallen.... and then into the treasure chest for the grand prize....

"Great" says Nevrmind "more stuff my class cannot use"

"Still... can break it down for the materials n sell the better stuff on BL for gold I suppose".... Being many months away from his Legendary...

"Steam creature... " he thinks "damn nearly forgot about him.... secondary Boss to kill..." so he runs up to the force field to join the "lets jump up and down" brigade again....

You got the key... no you got the key.... has anybody got the key..... How many times had Nevrmind heard that routine.... anyway someone had the key and the force field drops...

Jump into the void... hit the floor running... and beat the crap out of the Steam Boss... not hard to kill but can be tanky if to many jump down with you...

Get a nice sword from the boss and a rare amulet from his chest...

No time to waste as the "I'm outta here" text pops up and the portal awaits...

Nevrmind hangs back though as if you jump out to soon its just a mass of bodies when you reappear... but... but... Glitch... the Steam Boss pops up again.. with about 20 of us left.... Brilliant... all pile in again and Nevrmind has a bit of fun with a heart seeker move that has him leaping into the air for the killing strike...

Boss dies and we get his chest again... but not boss chest... fair enough I suppose... but we also don't get portal.... no portal... "I'm outta here" pops up again so Nevrmind jumps anyway...

Falling.. falling... still failing... quick cup of tea....  reactor floor coming up fast... and.... and....your dead.... 

Nevrmind looks up at all the other hero's falling down about him.... smiles and thinks... "I might be small..... but you look just as funny as I do falling down here.... Be a waste of a revive orb to miss watching this"

But all good things must end so he portals out to a way point for re birth.... and he kept that grin right up until a Charr tripped over him..... "mutter... mutter.. mumble.... hate this game...."

All these FaceWebTweets about the NHS..

Posted this on my Facebook page but thought I would add it here to...

I think that the UK governments of the last few decades have not wanted an National Health Service. It has been consistently let down and miss managed - staffing reductions - people "coerced" into working more hours for less pay whether booked or voluntary...

I have seen the most caring acts in hospitals and care homes and I have also seen "Indifferent" and callus acts on the elderly..

When my father was first diagnosed with cancer they told us he had only a few days, maybe weeks to live... that was bad enough but then Mum collapsed and was taken in with something they could not diagnose - she lay there for weeks with feeding tubes in her shoulder, as she could not keep solids down, that turned septic three times, to my knowledge, and lost a nearly a third of her body weight... she got better... by herself... so they sent her home....

The ulcer on her pancreas, that has had failed to notice, burst nearly killing her again... back in for another short stay as thankfully her body washed out all the toxins from the ulcer and whatever caused it in the first place...

All this while my father was using the pain to keep himself going for another nine months until everything just, simply, gave out...

Should my mothers ulcer have been found sooner - YES....

Should my father have been left laying there with a drain tube hanging from his stomach into a bucket next to his bed because it was easier than changing the bag - NO

Am I complaining about the quality of service they received NO... Should I?...

When my mother died it was mainly because of the out of hours doctor who incorrectly diagnosed the type of pneumonia mum had... So the antibiotics her gave her were totally ineffective but the autopsy/ police investigation (as mums death was “sudden”) cleared the doctor because he HAD diagnosed pneumonia.... All be it the wrong type...

I could write about my sister but my close friends already know about that..

I read a myriad of posts on here about the present staffing problems... There not new, just ongoing....

Thirty... Forty years ago the government were told you need more of this that and the other only to do none of it... And now everything gets built/ done with foreign money....

The government would much prefer us to go private but as that's an election loser they will just use time and tactics to achieve that end... Why should we have a free health service when we can have one that businessman will make money out of...

We train the best in the world to go away and work elsewhere and then we take in locums that do not know... well I'll leave that comment to you

The problem is in the ideology that one person is more important than another... And until that is sorted nothing else will be...

Cuts in staff and services are inevitable as long as the present “the only thing that's important is profit” system lasts...

How can “we made 2 billion this year so we must make 3 next year or we are a bad company” or “we must pay X millions for a football player” ever lead to better staffing levels... better care....

We managed better before money than we do now - But we still killed each other for being “different”

We have more... But most of it just gets chucked into a cupboard.... Or sold for the next “new” thing...

And still others want what we have... Or want to kill us...

How little I wonder has really changed

As long as people are greedy or lust after what others have we will need money...

Do away with want, greed and ownership.. you do away with money as well... Now there's a thought..

So choose what you want to worry about...

Me I’ll sit and watch the government build all these houses for people who will leave when the “benefits” of being here run out...